the beginning
by lizziriot
Summary: Sarah finally gives in to Jareth, and agrees to stay with him as long as he lets Toby go. but will he keep that promise?
1. a twist

A/N: yes I know that this starts out exactly how the last scene w/ Jareth and Sarah ended, but be patient, it has a twist; all I ask is that you sit through the beginning of this and read on.

BTW I don't own the labyrinth, unfortunately.

**

* * *

  
**

Chapter 1: a twist

Sarah was falling. The castle had come apart as soon as she had jumped to get to Toby. She landed and there he was, standing before her. Jareth. The source of her aching feet and back. Tall and thin with mismatched eyes and platinum hair.

"Give me the child." She demanded quietly.

"Sarah, beware, I have been generous up until now. I can be cruel." Jareth said, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Generous!" Sarah exclaimed "What have you done that's generous?"

"Everything!" Jareth barked "Everything that you wanted, I have done. You asked that the child be taken. I took him. You cowered before me, I was frightening. I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside-down, and I have done it all for you!" he sighed, it was the first time Sarah had ever seen him truly tired. "I am exhausted from living up to you're expectations, isn't that generous?"

Sarah bit her lip, she needed to do this, she needed to get her and her brother back above ground, no matter how much her heart protested. The truth was that she wanted to stay here. With Jareth, and all the other creatures of the underground.

"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered. I have fought my way here. To the castle beyond the goblin city, for my will is as strong as yours and my--"

"Stop! Wait! Look at what I am offering you" he conjured up a small crystal ball "your dreams." she could hear the desperation in his voice.

Choking back a sob, she went on "and my kingdom as great—"

"I ask for so little, just let me rule you and you can have everything you want."

She blinked and it dawned on her. "Everything?"

He nodded. "Love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."

Would it work? She thought wildly. "There is only on thing I want."

"Anything!"

"I will stay with you. On one condition."

"Name it and it is yours."

"A trade. Give up Toby and I will be yours."


	2. distraction

A/N: I don't own anything.

Thanks for the reviews; I know that first chapter was crappy.

btw the title of this story is subject to change, but ill let you know ahead of time

* * *

Chapter 2: distraction

He was silent. Sarah could practically hear him arguing with himself

"Fine. Say goodbye to him." He held out his arms and Toby fell from the sky and landed in them.

Sarah was taken aback. Why was he letting Toby go so easily?

"I only took Toby so I could get to you." He said, as if reading her thoughts.

He handed the babe to her. She could feel the tears welling in her eyes. Blinking them away, she held him close. "I will see you again." She whispered.

…

Jareth couldn't believe what was happening. She was finally his. After planning and planning, it'd been that easy. Of course he would bring Toby back when Sarah had forgot about him. It didn't take that long for a human to forget about their life above ground. He led her up the through the castle, which had returned to normal as soon as the clock had chimed. The goblins stared at them in awe. That was their new queen. A mere human. They had expected an Elvin princess at the very least. Jareth glared at them, daring them to say something about Sarah, his Sarah. The goblins seemed to feel the annoyance coming from him, edging away. Meanwhile Sarah was looking around in wonder. When she had finally got there, she hadn't paused to look at the place. Jareth smiled at the expression on her face.

"Here, milady, is your new room." Her jaw dropped. It was enormous. The ceiling was at least forty feet high, and the room itself … well she had a feeling she could've fit her entire house inside it. The bed was circular and larger than a king. The comforter was made of what she thought was gold velvet. Everything was made of a very dark wood.

"This is mine?" she gasped, starring up at the mural covered ceiling.

"Yes, well and mine, of course." She rushed over to the wardrobe. Wrenching it open, she let out a cry of delight. There were gorgeous medieval-ish dresses in every color of the rainbow.

"Ah that reminds me, you must get dressed for dinner. And while you do that, my love, I must run along, there are matters of business I need to attend to." she looked at him, her eyes questioning. "Nothing you need to worry about."

He walked out of the room, fighting the urge to kiss her.

"Muthirap!" Jareth shouted and a little goblin appeared by his side "send the dwarf Hogwart, the fox Sir Didymus and that beast thing Ludo to the oubliette, right now!"

"My lord, there is no dwarf by the name of Hogwart…"

"Well it's something like that. Anyway if I ever see anything to do with them again, I will personally drown you in the bog of eternal stench!" he barked. That takes care of that. Now nothing will ever make her remember her live above ground. He grinned wickedly at the thought.


	3. ivory and peaches

A/N: I've decided that I'm going to wait until I'm finished posting the story to rename it. I'm glad you guys like this soo much, but I was wondering if you guys could to me a favor and read my other story Shades of gray. Its original and, I know this sounds dumb, but I feel like no one even bothers with it. Just me being stupid, but, if you guys read and review, good or bad, I'll post this story extra fast. Now, enough of me begging, on with the story.

* * *

b

Chapter 3: ivory and peaches

A small goblin led Sarah to the dining chamber. When Jareth saw her, his jaw dropped. She looked beautiful. Her long dark hair was held up in a loose bun; she was wearing a strapless floor-length ivory corset dress that made her already milky skin seem even whiter. He stood up. And bowed low, hiding his eyes, so that Sarah couldn't see the desire burning in them. She just stared at him, her head tilted like a curious child. Why was he bowing to her? He then took her hand and pressed his lips firmly against it.

"Leave us!" he bellowed at the five goblins, after he lead Sarah to he seat. They quickly scurried away. "Now" he turned to Sarah "how are you enjoying our castle?"

"Ours…?"

"Yes, my love, ours. You didn't know I meant to make to my queen?"

She shook her head no. "I'm not queen material."

"And, pray tell, what would give you that idea." He said this with some sarcasm. No she wasn't the average queen. She was unladylike, sarcastic and she acted below her station. That's why he was so attracted to her.

"You know why, you took Toby, so you've felt my wrath" she grinned at him slyly.

He waved away her reply, and called for food. Sarah's eyes widened when a feast appeared right before their eyes. Mountains of exotic fruits and vegetables that she had never seen before, meats flavored with rum and spices and glorious deserts of cakes and pies.

"Here" Jareth said, tossing a fruit to her. "It's a labyrinthine peach. The best fruit of our land."

Sarah caught it with both hands. It seemed almost familiar. She shook off this feeling and bit into it. She looked up at him for a moment.

"What did you do?" she asked, before collapsing.


	4. amnesia

A/N: YAY! Two chapters in a day. I guess I'm just in the mood to write, and the last chapter was really short (it seemed like a good place to end.)

BTW: you guy are lucky to get this today, cuz I just found out that they're making a sequel to the dark crystal (great movie, if you've never seen it, I highly recommend!) so I'm literally crying w/ happiness! :P

* * *

Chapter 4: amnesia

Jareth let out a hiss of air when he saw that Sarah had slumped back in her chair. He was almost done now. The first part of his plan has finished in a success. Now came the tricky part, making her fall in love with him. He remembered when he had discussed his plans to Caelithus, his chancellor.

"Why not just enchant the girl?" the goblin had asked.

"Because I want her to love me, honestly love me."

"Fool." Caelithus had mumbled.

Jareth picked Sarah up and carried her to their bedchamber, laying her down gently.

…

He sat next to her sleeping form, waiting for her to come to. When she finally stirred, he flinched.

"Where am I?"

"Safe, do you remember anything?"

"Yes, well… the last thing I remember was finding a book… and seeing an owl. The book, it was about a maze or something… and there were goblins… and a king!"

Jareth remember this to. He had dropped the book, knowing that the only person to that would be able to see it, had the second sight, therefore belonging in his world. He didn't, however, realize that the one who found the book would be his soul mate. But that had been six years before, which meant…

"What happened to my body?!" Sarah cried.

Jareth swore loudly, and looked at her. She had rushed over to the mirror, and was now examining every part of her body that hadn't been there when she was 10. He choked back a laugh when he saw her grabbing her chest, her eyes full of bewilderment.

**  
**

* * *

A/N: yeah, I had to put that in there…. sniggers


	5. Caelithus' argument

A/N; yeah I know its been forever and I ended the story on a rather odd note, but what can you do? Writers block comes and goes. And it doesn't help that I've been in summer school for the past 3 weeks.

BTW: I mention Mab in this, for those of you that don't know, the faery queen is often known under this name

* * *

Chapter 5: Caelithus' argument

Jareth let out a stream of swear words in both fae and english (he learned them from watching Sarah all those years). He had messed up. Again. While last time it had been too little forgetfulness potion, this time it was too much.

"I warned you," said a voice behind him. He turned to see Caelithus standing in the doorway.

"Where is she?" he asked.

"With Nella, teasing faeries."

"What am I going to do?" he asked. Caelithus was taken aback by desperateness in his king's voice.

"I don't know. I suppose you could try to find an antidote, or wait seven or so years…" he let his voice fall away.

"You know better than I that there is no antidote. And seven years is too long."

The chancellor snorted. "Seven years? Long? You cannot be serious."

"I am! I want her now!" Jareth roared

"She has the mind of a ten year old! You have to wait. Or find someone else." He said, stern.

"But I don't want anyone else. I never have."

"Then wait. Let her get to know you. To trust you, Mab knows you wouldn't be able to earn it if she weren't under the potion. Stop acting like a stubborn child."

Jareth stared at him. No one but Caelithus would've ever dared talk to him like that. He bit his tongue and turned walked away from the old goblin. Making his way towards the garden, he heard a bubble of laughter, and a clatter of footsteps, followed by a motherly voice exclaiming "Miss Sarah!" and being knocked to the ground.

He looked up at her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, your highness!" Nella said, trying to untangle the figure that was Sarah from him.

Sarah clumsily stood up "sorry, goblin king." She mumbled.

Jareth fleeting thought of all the times she had called him that, and how this time her tone wasn't mocking.

"it's quite alright."

Sarah looked up at him and grinned. Those green eyes that he'd seen both narrowed in anger, and welling with tears now hauntingly innocent.


	6. set free

A/N; yes I know its been _forever_. But I didn't know where to go from there. I hope you enjoy. And I'm sorry if it's crappy but I'm kind of forcing it out since it's been so long. And I feel kinda bad for keeping you all waiting. So where were we…

* * *

Chapter 6: set free

Sarah laughed, running from Jareth. She had stolen his favorite necklace, a silver crescent moon, hung upside down on a leather cord, and insisted she wear it as a hair band.

"Come back here this instant," he shouted, though he secretly enjoyed chasing her, it made him feel young again.

"You can't have what you can't catch!" she shouted merrily.

Jareth went one way, feinting and caught her in his arms. She squealed and struggled, but that was all in vein.

"Now I'll have that." He said, unwinding it from her hair. A few black strands were caught on the cord.

"Go bother Nella, I have work to do." And with that he walked away, his posture significantly arrogant.

The girl skipped over to her governess, pouting.

"Jareth doesn't like me…" she trailed off.

"No, of course not. His majesty's very fond of you. he just is a very busy man… for lack of a better term" she mumbled the last part so it wouldn't reach Sarah's ears. She, like the rest of the goblins, didn't agree with what he was doing to Sarah, brainwashing her.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she looked at the princess' eyes and saw that she still wasn't assured, but that was all she could say to her. Jareth a warned all of the goblins that, if they told Sarah what was going on, they'd be thrown in into the bog.

"Tell you what. How about we don't do the lesson today," Sarah's face lit up when she said this, "and I'll allow you to explore the labyrinth."

"Really? Oh thank you so much!" she kissed the goblin on her cheek.

"Well, now now, here" she handed Sarah a folded piece of parchment, "this is a map of the entire place, with a way to get back clearly labeled. Be back by twilight." The human bounded off to the entrance of the Goblin City.


	7. the familiar strangers

A/N; okay so, my chapters are really short so I thought it would me only fair if I posted two. Oh just to let you know I kinda have the whole story line in my head so I'm gonna try and finish it soon.

* * *

Chapter 7: the familiar strangers

Sarah left the gate of the Goblin City; She was led past neat hedges and stone walkways, to a wild forest with no path at all. She had a feeling in the back of her head that she had seen this place before. All of a sudden the heard a musical screeching behind her. She turned and saw a group of orange… well she didn't know what they were, but her instinct told her to run.

She turned, preparing to follow that instinct, but one of the… things grabbed her wrist.

"Hey lady! We know you! you're the chica that couldn't take off her head!"

"What?! Who are you?"

"That doesn't matter, were gonna fix that head of yours."

"No! let me go!" she tried twisting her arm out of the strange creatures grip, but stopped short when she heard a violent, yet familiar, roar from her left. A large monster came rushing out of the trees. The orange things screamed and ran in the opposite direction. Sarah fell to the forest floor, cowering.

"Sawah?" The monster said.

She stared at him. He was about eight feet tall with matted, shaggy brown fur, two curved horns, and sharp fangs the protruded from his lower lip. In spite of all this, his small black eyes were warm and kind.

Another creature, goblin size, but with more human features ran up beside him, followed by a fox in clothes, riding a large, fluffy dog.

"Damn fireys, that'll show th—" he paused when he saw Sarah.

"that was very good my brother, you'll be a knight in no ti—"

the other thing interrupted " Didymus, do me a favor and shut up. Can't you see that we have company."

The fox turned to and his eyes widened "Why Lady Sarah! What ever are you doing here?"

"who are you? how do you know my name?"

"why, its us, Ludo, Didymus and me, Hoggle. Don't you remember us at all?


	8. unexpected

Chapter 8: unexpected

"I'm sorry, should I know who you are?" Sarah said.

"Should ya—, when I get a hold of Jareth I'm gonna murder that no good, brainwashing…." Hoggle trailed off into a stream of unintelligible swear words in the language of the dwarves.

"What my brother means" sir Didymus said, glancing at Hoggle, who was still muttering "is that, well, yes, you should remember us, we are great friends, we helped with your quest."

"Quest?"

"Sawah, bwother" Ludo whimpered.

"Brother? I don't have a brother, I'm an only child." Sarah stated proudly.

"What? You don't remember anything do ya? Your brother, Toby, was kidnapped by the goblin king, Jareth, so he could get to you to come down here, 'cuz he has some sick obsession with you."

"No, I don't believe you, you're scary. Leave me alone!" she ran away in the opposite direction, ignoring their calls.

She ran all the way back to the Goblin City, running over a few of the goblins themselves in her haste. She fell and landed, head first, into a barrel of water. Soaking wet and freezing, she began to cry. One of the goblins must have summoned Nella, for she came rushing too her and carried her home.

"Good heavens child? Whatever is the matter with you?"

Sobbing and sputtering, Sarah recounted what happened to her governess. When she was done, the female goblin remained silent for a few seconds, her face grave.

"Under no circumstances must you tell the king what you saw, understand?"

"Yes, but why?"

"Never you mind missy, now go and get dressed for supper, his majesty has a special guest here."

Sarah did as she was told and ran into her room, pulling of the damp blue material and flinging it to the side. She chose a pretty green dress that matched her eyes. And pulled out the braid of her hair, letting it fall loose and wavy. She ran into the dining hall and was relieved to see that Jareth was not yet there. Then took that time to sneak a honey cake and to think about what those monsters had said to her. She didn't believe them, and was determined to forget about it. She heard the doors open and saw Jareth enter, holding the hand of a little boy with blond hair and blue eyes no older than two or three.

"Sarah, I would like you too meet my nephew, Tobias, or Toby for short."


	9. Jareth’s worries

A/N; okay, so i know tHat ten months has beeN a ridiculous amount of time between updates, so please DONT SHOOT!!

* * *

Chapter 9: Jareth's worries

Jareth watched as Sarah chased after a toddling Toby, both giggling madly. He felt lost in this game, felt like it was snow balling out of his control. He knew that he had made a mistake bringing Toby back to the labyrinth, but his pride had gotten in the way, he didn't want to lose. His thoughts were broken by the sound of Caelithus clearing his throat.

"What?" Jareth snapped, sounding harsher than he meant.

"Sir, dinner is ready" the chancellor replied shortly.

"Sorry, I'm just—not myself today…"

"Your majesty, if you don't mind me asking, what's wrong?"

"It's that damn girl and her brother! I made a mistake by bringing him here. I know she is going to regain her memory because of him, I can feel it. Everyday she seems to become more mature, even though you said it would take at least seven years. And now she's looking at me with this intensity… it's because she's remembering, I know it!" he grabbed handfuls of his hair, looking as if he was on the verge of tearing it out. "and I cannot lose her, not this time!"

Caelithus awkwardly patted the kings shoulder in what he hoped would be a soothing way. "yes, I have also noticed the way she looks at you, but I do not believe it is out of remembrance. I think that she is starting to feel something… more for you. She doesn't see you as a frightful king, nor as a father figure. You have been kind to her, yes, but you are still mysterious to her, and she is… curious. And as she matures, that curiosity becomes stronger."

"So are you saying that she is starting to have feelings for me?"

"I must say that it is very likely."

Jareth straightened up, having been cheered up considerably "alright, tell those who will be waiting for me that I'll be down in a moments time" he said in his usual haughty tone as Caelithus closed the door.

…

Sarah stared at the goblin king as he entered the room, analyzing everything from his arrogant posture to his mismatched eyes, she looked down when those same eyes caught hers, feeling heat flood her face. The king smirked.

"Sarah" Jareth's voice rang out "I wish for you to join me in the library after we sup." He saw the governess stiffen out of the corner of his eye, and his grin widened. Sarah merely nodded.

…

"what did you want to talk about?" Sarah asked him the moment they were alone. He heard a hesitant tone in here voice.

"Do you fear me, Sarah?" he paused as she shook her head no "then why do you keep your distance? Come, sit by me, I will not bite."

She sat down on the cushion next to him as he took her in. She still looked the same, milk colored skin, wide green eyes the color of apples, shell pink lips and long dark curls tumbling down her back, yet her aura had changed, what was innocence was replaced by hesitant confidence.

"How old are you, Sarah?"

She looked down thoughtfully "I-I don't know, I know I'm not ten" she let out a hollow laugh "how could I be? I feel older. When I look at I know I'm older, I just cant explain it…"

"What if I told you hat I knew your age?"

She narrowed her eyes. "How old am I, really? I have no memories beyond my ten-year-old self, but…"

"You are seventeen."

Sarah's eyes widened for a brief moment, then closed, letting this information sink into her.

"Does that sound a little more realistic to you?"

"Mmhmm."

"So, " Jareth said suddenly "I've noticed something about you."

She made a face, "I haven't done anything."

He chuckled. "no, nothing like that. I've realized how much you stare, why is that?"

Her face turned beet red "I have know idea what you're talking about."

"Oh come, come, I am not a fool, I see you, my question is, why?"

"I don't know, you some how fascinate me." She mumbled her face turning further red.

He gently grabbed her chin, making her look at him "and why is that?" he whispered.

"I know what you are really like." His heart dropped for a moment and he let go of her.

"and what, pray tell, am I really like?"

"you walk around, acting like this big scary king, but I know better than that. You've been nothing but kind to me. So thank you." She looked at him awkwardly for a moment as he restarted his pulse, and as she got up to leave, her grabbed her hand.

"Don't go" he breathed.

She looked at him with heavily lidded eyes "why?"

He stood up in front of her, heart pounding. He didn't reply, but dragged his hand towards her face to caress her cheek for a moment, before pressing his lips against hers. The kiss was slow and gentle at first, but deepened as he tried to put every feeling he had for her into that one kiss. A feeling pure bliss enveloped him as he held her against his chest. He did it, she was finally his. Suddenly, something echoed in his mind, threatening to ruin that moment. _"You've been nothing but kind to me". _ He pushed that away, hoping she couldn't taste the lie on his tongue.


End file.
